White Plains, N.Y.-Bunge Ltd. saw a 25 percent drop in fertilizer earnings (EBIT) for the third quarter ending Sept. 30, 2008, to $84 million on sales of $1.9 billion versus the year-ago $112 million and $1.24 billion, respectively. Volumes were down due to soybean and corn farmers accelerating purchases in the first half and a tight credit environment. Higher margins were offset by $215 million of foreign exchange losses resulting from the devaluation of the Brazilian real on the U.S. dollar-denominated financing of working capital. Actual sales volumes were off 24 percent, to 3.08 million mt from the year-ago 4 million mt. Despite the quarter, nine-month fertilizer earnings are up 179 percent, at $610 million on sales of $4.9 billion versus the year-ago $219 million and $2.6 billion. YTD volumes were off 8 percent, to 8.75 million mt from the year-ago 9.53 million mt. Bunge-wide third-quarter net income was off 33 percent, to $234 million ($1.70 per diluted share) on sales of $14.8 billion, versus the year-ago $351 million ($2.70 per share) and $9.7 billion. YTD net income was up 139 percent to $1.27 billion ($9.26 per share) on sales of $41.6 billion, versus the year-ago $533 million ($4.12 per share) and $25.4 billion. Bunge said it sees the current market environment as short-lived, and that the basic fundamentals of its industry remain intact and should generate compelling growth for companies with global asset networks and broad product offerings.
Transparency Across the Fertilizer Value-Chain